Hello my joyful friends.
Another birthday has passed. Fitting, right? Started a blog on aging and now, gulp, another year older. I am debating on telling you all how old I am. Let me know if anything over 50 really matters anyway. I’m thinking 49 from now on. Period, end of discussion!
I had a joy-filled 4th of July weekend. Of course, went to the requisite barbeque and ate the obligatory rib. It was delicious. Small COVID-19 compliant gathering. Two couples and me. Then, my birthday and dinner with recently returned home from college, 20 year old daughter, and 21 year old son. It was wonderful.
So, more about aging. If you are an older adult, I’m pretty sure I am, and are in pain, which I am, it is usually lower back pain, and mine is. Did you know that 90%, yes, 90% of people over the age of 60, have disc degeneration in their spines? There are lots of reasons this happens and lots of ways to prevent it, although by the time you find this out, it is probably too late. I found this out at the end of 2018.
Got a Fitbit for Christmas (thanks, recently returned home from college daughter!) and joined Noom (am I allowed to say the name of a weight loss app?). My newfound virtual coach suggested setting goals. So, mine was steps. How many steps did I walk in a day? Around 5,000, which sounded like a lot to me, I was a bit of a couch potato at the time. It turns out, I can take a lot more steps than that. Cut to the chase, I showed that lady I was up to the challenge, 12,000 steps in a day? Piece ‘o cake.
That’s when things started to go sideways. Hills is what did me in. All that climbing caused my hip flexors to shorted, and that caused my back to start hurting. After a year of scanning, poking, prodding, advice giving, physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, I tried it all (except pain pills…not going down that road!), it seems there is no cure for my condition. I have arthritis that is causing a narrowing of the sciatic nerve canal. Don’t quote me on that. I’m no doctor, although at this point in time, at my advanced age of 49 (again!) I feel like it.
You may ask, “What is joyful about that?!” Well, I’ll tell you about all the amazing things that happened to me as a result of my back pain in future posts. I read an article about “10 ways to Get More People to Read Your Blog” and she said a lot of things, most of which I don’t know how to do like, a hashtag, or Instagram, or even a live video?! So, I’ll just keep blogging, because the number one reason she gave was to update you regularly, so that’s the plan.
Ta ta for now.
Joy
Spark: to start a fire
Joyfully Aging 